


One Wrong Turn

by sg_wonderland



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-14
Updated: 2013-09-14
Packaged: 2017-12-26 13:20:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/966395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sg_wonderland/pseuds/sg_wonderland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt #139 - A day in the life of Continuum alt.timeline Jack and Sara</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Wrong Turn

One Wrong Turn

 

Sara looked around the kitchen, nodding with satisfaction. Jack’s plane should be landing within the hour; he was supposed to call as soon as it did and she’d put the chicken in the oven. The salad just needed to be assembled and the cheesecake was already baked and cooling. She turned when she heard the front door close loudly. “Charlie? Is that you?”

“Yeah, Mom.” Her son grabbed her from behind and gave her his usual enthusiastic hug, his chin resting easily on the top of her head. “Dad not home yet?”

“He hasn’t called yet so I assume he’s still in the air.”

“He could have at least let me pick him up at the field.” He mumbled around a pear he’d grabbed from the fruit bowl. “I’d like to get a look at that new jet.”

Sara sighed. After twenty-two years of marriage, she should have gotten used to her guys – both of them – being jet-crazy. Charlie had wanted to join the Air Force straight out of high school, Jack had argued for college and they’d settled on him going to community college and still living at home; after two years, they’d revisit the issue. She knew the day would come, all too quickly, when Charlie would walk out that door as a full-fledged adult, when a boy would ring the doorbell for their daughter, but she wasn’t quite ready for that. Yet.

“Well, while we’re waiting, why don’t you go over to Lanie’s and get your sister?”

“What’s she doing over there?” Charlie contemplated another piece of fruit, just grinning when his mother lightly slapped his hand, muttering about ruining his appetite. “I thought she was mad at Lanie?”

“Lanie needed help with her French homework and you know how your sister is…”

“Her and her strays. Can I ride the motorbike over there?”

She crossed her arms and stared at him, finally nodding. “Helmets. For both of you, I’m not kidding, Charlie.”

“Thanks, Mom, we’ll be right back.” He loped toward the garage door. She just shook her head as she heard the motorcycle fire up. No wonder the neighbors had been giving her glares lately, it was a bit loud; she’d have to ask Jack to look at it.

*

Half an hour later, Jack had called, the chicken was baking and Sara was putting a load of towels in the dryer when the silence was interrupted by two loud voices from the garage. “You don’t have to take it out on me because you can’t keep a girlfriend.” Her daughter’s voice was gleefully smug in a way that only younger sisters seemed able to achieve.

“Hey, I can too keep a girlfriend! It wasn’t my fault Candi and I broke up.”

“Hi, Mom,” she kicked her tennis shoes off before kissing her mother and walking sock-footed through the utility room. “And, anyway, what kind of a name is Candi anyway? Sounds like a stripper.” She chortled.

“Yeah, coming from someone named Peaches, that’s real funny.” Charlie shot back.

“My real name is Colleen Joy, as you well know. And the Peaches thing was your idea, so there!” She stuck her tongue out at her annoying older brother as she passed into the kitchen.

“Mom.” Charlie boosted himself up on the washer and pleaded with his mother. “You’d never have let me get away with acting like that when I was nine.”

“Oh, but I’m afraid she’s right. You’re the one who stuck her with that nickname.” Sara had to smile at the memory of the day they’d finally been allowed to bring their premature daughter home from the hospital. Charlie had reluctantly agreed to have the tiny bundle laid in his lap, clearly fascinated by her baby-soft skin, hence the peaches remark. And the nickname had stuck. Now Peaches was a tall, thin girl with her father’s sparkling brown eyes and wicked grin.

Charlie leaped down, frowning fiercely as he ran after his sister. “And just what do you know about strippers, young lady?”

Sara hastily started the dryer when she heard Peaches’ shriek and hurried to avert the pending sibling war.

*

“I’m home!” Jack called from the front door. “Charlie, did you park in front of the garage again?”

“Dad!” Peaches flung herself fearlessly toward her father, who caught her with an exaggerated groan. “You’re home! Charlie’s been picking on me again!”

“I’ll beat him up right after dinner.” Her father promised, hefting her up in his arms. “How’s my babygirl?”

She wound long, skinny legs around him. “I got all A’s on my report card. And you know what you promised!”

He carried her into the living room. “I don’t remember promising anything.” Jack feigned ignorance, hoping against hope she’d forgotten.

“You said if I got all A’s, you’d get me my own phone. You promised!”

“Sara, honey,” Jack implored as he shifted to kiss his wife.

“Sorry, you did promise. Get off your father; you’re too big for him to carry around like that.” Sara patted her daughter’s back.

“I’ll never get too big for Daddy, right?” Standing in his embrace, she peppered his face with little girl kisses.

Sara blinked at the sudden expression on Jack’s face; it almost looked like panic, fear. His voice, however, was even. “No, my babygirl will never get too big for her daddy.”

“I’ll remind you of that in about ten years when she asks you to walk her down an aisle.”

“Ten years? Sara, she’s just a baby!”

“She sure is, a big baby.” Charlie thundered down the stairs. Jack turned and used his free hand to pull his son close, kiss his cheek. “Gee, Dad.” Charlie rubbed his face. “What’s up with you?”

Jack kept his hand on Charlie’s cheek. “Nothing, buddy, just glad to be home with you guys.”

Charlie wriggled out of the embrace. “Being up there in the Arctic must have frozen your brain. Want me to light a fire?”

“You know, that’d be great.” He reluctantly released his daughter, who began giving her brother tips on how to build a fire. Sara immediately slid into his arms. “Hey, baby.” Jack gave her a real kiss, much to the vocal dismay of their children. “Tonight,” he promised as Sara headed to the kitchen and he went to help Charlie at the fireplace.

*

“Okay, so what’s really up?” Sara slid into bed beside Jack after checking on the kids one last time. Peaches was asleep in the frilly bedroom Sara knew she was on the verge of outgrowing and Charlie was doing homework in the den.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Jack peered over his reading glasses.

“You’ve been kind of…demonstrative today. What happened up there?” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “I’m not asking for classified secrets, just what happened.”

“I had an…odd conversation with a stranger that just made me think how lucky I am, how lucky we are. How quickly things can change; how, with one wrong turn, we’re leading totally different lives. If Charlie…”

She shushed him with a finger to his lips. “Didn’t we say we weren’t going to talk about that ever again?”

“Sara, if there’d been even one bullet in that gun.” Jack still shuddered after all these years. And now, after what that Daniel guy had told him, what might have been frightened him more than ever.

“And if Peaches had been born even a week earlier, we could have lost her. I know that, Jack, but I don’t want to waste this life, this time we have here together, worrying about other lives, other things that didn’t even happen. Our life together, what we’ve built here. Isn’t that enough for you?”

Jack nodded. “You’re right. This life, this one right here, is the only one that matters. You’re awful smart.” He leaned over to kiss her softly. “And very beautiful.”

She snapped the light off behind her, watched him toss his glasses and book on the nightstand. “Make me believe it, Jack.”

“Even if it takes all night?” He growled against her neck.

“Especially if it takes all night. I love you, Jack.” She sighed into the silence. Her husband and her children were here and healthy and happy. What might have been had no business intruding into their reality and she had no intention of letting Jack forget that. Ever.


End file.
